“No deal is better than a bad deal on extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. This plan will blow a $180 billion hole in the budget, and right now there are no offsetting spending cuts on the table to help pay for it. Without offsetting cuts and/or real entitlement reforms, these proposals should not even be under consideration.

“Congress has allowed itself to be caught in the Obama Administration’s class warfare trap. Rather than taking a principled stand on preserving the solvency of Social Security or winding down these perpetual extensions of unemployment benefits, Congress is more concerned about being accused of being heartless. The sad truth is continuing to spend money we don’t have is a dereliction of duty that shall engender future generations with a debt that cannot be paid and an America none of us would ever recognize.

“The Senate majority’s insistence on funding without offsets is nothing short of a complete surrender of the principles that animated voters to the polls in 2010. The House is to be praised for rejecting Harry Reid’s kick-the-can approach to governing.”